They're just looking at the view...

....from Circular Quay station while waiting for the train; watching ferries come and go and the people walking along the Quay.

In fact it's the view on the masthead photo on this blog.

Sunset, Sydney Harbour

Taken from Milsons Point, near North Sydney Olympic Pool. Anzac Bridge is poking up at the left of the photo.

In The Navy

Sydney Fleet Base, Woolloomooloo Bay

Sydney from Cremorne (MacCallum Pool)

Ive posted previously about the free MacCallum pool - here - and how it was begun by a local, early Olympic swimmer Fred Lane . But on this day, it was the view across to the city skyline- Sydney Tower, Opera House, Harbour bridge was as pretty as a picture :-)

Ferry, Sydney Harbour from Cremorne Point

Under the fig tree, Cremorne Point (Walk Pt 4)

Time for a lunch break, under a giant Port Jackson fig, overlooking Mosman Bay. Our American guests learn the secrets of the game of cricket - at this point, the importance of the ball's seams in spin bowling if I remember correctly.

Tree poisoning, Mosman Bay (Walk Part 3)

This huge sign has been erected where a tree has been destroyed. The sign directly faces a house. I wonder if the Council particularly wants the residents of that house to read the sign? We strongly suspect so. Destruction of trees by people complaining they 'spoil their view' have become more numerous . The aim of the signs is to block, or at least mar the view thus 'created'.

Tree poisoning

Boats on Little Sirius Cove (Walk Part 2)

Continuing on our walk, looking across Little Sirius Cove to Curraghbeena Point. Look carefully at the right hand side and you can see the apartment block the spider was "attacking" two days ago.

Aerial map: http://www.mosman.nsw.gov.au/file_download/712/CurlewCampArtistsWalk.pdf

Seven Shillings Beach, Point Piper

I acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. Along this shore, now mostly destroyed, or, apparently, hidden from view, boarded up under the foundations of the houses are Aboriginal stone engravings and carvings.

There are several stories as to how this harbourside beach in the exclusive suburb of Point Piper got its name:
1. Named as such when a Mrs Busby gave an Aboriginal seven shillings compensation for fishing rights, or for a catch of fish;
2. A nurse, employed by Captain Piper, lost a purse containing 'seven shillings' on the beach.

Seven Shillings Beach is not one of Sydney's most beautiful, but it is certainly one of its most disputed. Private bbeaches are not meant to exist in Australia, or so we like to believe. However, some of the country's most well-heeled live in this little enclave (ghetto?) of Sydney and don't take too kindly to people who are not "us" gaining access.

Walking volunteer, Graham Spindler (2007 ) *explains that restrictions limit access to "below mean high water mark during daylight hours", as he calls it "a classic piece of legal compromise".

Spindler continues wryly: "...the beach remains privately owned, although glances across into the private realms are permitted (or inevitable), some of the backyards having long been owned by the fairfax family."

Point Piper
Now here's a classic Sydney story of wealth, harbour views, a beyond-their-means lifestyle, and corruption. But there wasn't an ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) 180 years ago!

Graham Spindler again: " Point Piper's European history began as part of a 76ha land grant by Governor Macquarie to Captain John Piper in 1820. Piper had had control of customs and all harbour matters, a lucrative position which enabled him to vastly increase the size of his land holding and build the finest house then in Sydney on the point. He named it Henrietta Villa, after the second name of Gov Macquarie's wife, Elizabeth, and it quickly became the most prestigious social venue in town. However, the flamboyant and extravagant lifestyle exceeeded even his resources and he was soon deeply in debt. In 1827 it became apparent that he had embezzled 13 000 pounds from the customs revenues which together with other debts amounted to millions in modern value. The mortified Piper made a curiously grand suicide attempt, having himself rowed out into the harbour, and to the strains of his naval band, jumping overboard. He survived to retire to a more modest rural life." (near Bathurst) More here.
More about Captain Piper (and below, a portrait)

* Thanks Graham, with whom I trained as a school teacher-librarian in 1981!

Redleaf Pool, Double Bay

A lovely harbour pool at the end of Seven Shillings Beach. Foot access only, down the stairs behind the Woollahra Council Offices on New South Head Road.

The small island is Clark Island. It's part of Sydney Harbour National Park. It can only be accessed by private vessel. You can book it for weddings and other functions. In 1789, Lieutenant Ralph Clark, a marine on the First Fleet, tried to cultivate a vegetable garden on this one hectare island. He abandoned the idea when his crops were repeatedly stolen.

There's more pictures of Redleaf pool here on my "Swimming" blog.

When people think of Sydney . . . Take 2

Yesterday's photo featured the Harbour Bridge and a ferry, in response to the theme "when people think of my city..." It prompted quite some discussion about the place of the Opera House. (I recommend you scroll down and have a look at that post)

My theory runs like this: the OH is more important in overseas thinking, because Sydney "came of age" internationally with the Opera House. Prior to the 1973 when it opened, Sydney was hardly on international radar. It helps that it was designed by a European, an architect with a major international reputation.

However, the bridge has long been lodged in the Australian psyche - since it was built in the 1930s. It featured in many works of art at the time it was being built, and was integral in Sydney's inexorable development towards the city it is today. When I was a child in Melbourne in the 1960s, Sydney WAS "The Coathanger".

And this: we've always been a bit ambivalent towards the OH. The building of it was mired in political controversy, and it took a LONG time for Sydney-siders to fully embrace it and stop whingeing about it being a "waste of money". Though you'd be hard pressed now to find someone who doesn't like it, or take pride in it. But everyone acknowledges it is far more spectacular on the outside than inside. And many many Sydney-siders would never have gone in.

In short, the OH, as far as many (?) some(?) Australians are concerned is a flawed wonder. The bridge is beyond reproach!

Now look at the picture. The buildings on the right, on the promenade toward the OH are also controversial. Built in the 1990s, and dubbed "The Toaster", they hide the OH from view from this vantage point of Circular Quay. These are a testament to developers - they are multi million dollar apartments. Instead of opening up the OH to view, we hid it from the very place most visitors arrive at the harbour! Sure, the colonnade below The Toaster is reasonably pleasant - expensive restaurants and cafes and art shops, mostly geared at tourists - but not celebrating the landmark most linked with Sydney by many!

(And I haven't even got wound up about the shabby tin rooftops of the wharves...they deserve so much more. I'll spare you that rant for now).

Evening sun, Cremorne

The view from the houses I showed yesterday.

Wulworrá-jeung (Robertson's Point) - Cremorne

This is one of my favourite spots in all of Sydney Harbour. I like to climb down the ladder in the cliff face and sit on that little bridge across to the lighthouse and watch ferries, cruise ships, kayaks, and whatever else comes into view on the harbour. Robertson's Point was called Wulworrá-jeung by local Aborigines, the Cammeraygal. It's at the very tip of Cremorne Point.

James Robertson, a Scottish watchmaker, was granted 86 acres of land here in 1832. he built a house here. PS, all the masts across the harbour (above) are of the Sydney-Hobart yacht race fleet in Rushcutters Bay.

Handicap Honours

This yacht took handicap honours in the Sydney-Hobart race. And I thought "Rosebud" was a sled owned by Citizen Kane as a child...

Actually I read recently that "Rosebud" was supposedly the pet name newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst (on whom the movie Citizen Kane was based) gave to a certain part of his lover's genitalia. See what you can find out by reading newspapers :-)

Happy New Year's Eve, wherever you are and whatever you may be doing. I'll be taking up my favourite position - on the couch.

From Milsons Point

The setting sun is reflected off the railings at Jeffrey Street wharf at Milsons Point.

From the Dunera Boys to this...Jones Bay

"On 10 July, 1940, the troop ship Dunera, owned by the British India Company, left Liverpool England for Australia. On board were almost 2000 German and Austrian internees, most of them Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Also sailing with the refugees were 200 Italian Fascists and 251 German Nazis.

The eight week voyage was not a happy one, with many of the internees being mis-treated and humiliated by the British armed guards. The vessel was also attacked by a German submarine and hit by two torpedoes, both of which failed to explode.

After disembarking, the Italian and German prisoners, along witha few "doubtful" internees in Melbourne, the Dunera continued on to Sydney. Despite the obvious delight of most of the internees when they landed at Jones Bay, Australian authorities took no risks. The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

'Every thirty feet along the wharf were men armed with revolvers, and the entire wharf was surrounded by a cordon of police...' [sounds like APEC!]

Each year surviving 'Dunera Boys' and their families and friends gather to remember the day they first set foot in Sydney.

- from a commemorative plaque on the wharf.

Dunera Boys reunion 1990

A memoir of a Dunera Boy

Evening cocktails

Flying Fish restaurant, Jones Bay wharf, 7:15pm

Boats for hire, Rose Bay

Did you notice?

I deliberately didn't draw attention to this "cow" on the grass of the house pictured yesterday, wondering whether anyone would notice it.

Did you see it?

I wonder whether it was bought after the worldwide phenomenon Cow Parade was in Sydney in 2002? I looked for it on the Cow Parade website, but for some reason Sydney isn't on the list. (Why not?) And the link to the Cow Parade Australia site doesn't seem to work.

So, I kept searching. I found an independent site which is also perplexed about why the Sydney site no longer exists. There are no pictures of the Sydney ones, but there are names. I don't have time right now to go through them all.

Life On The Harbour Shore

Two views from Duff Reserve off Wolseley Road, Point Piper - where SERIOUS money resides.

Above: looking west towards the city.

Above: Looking east across Felix Bay towards Vaucluse.